Navigating a System Against Victims by

ethompson250 — 2024-04-29 16:24:54 UTC

ethompson250 — 2024-04-29 16:27:36 UTC

ethompson250 — 2024-05-01 06:28:30 UTC

From a young age, girls are taught to not walk alone, to carry self defense weapons, to avoid groups of men; all to prevent them from being victims of sexual violence. A report from the Center of Disease Control reports that, “over half of woman have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during her lifetime.”(CDC, 2024) within this number the CDC sites that, “More than 4 in 5 female rape survivors reported that they were first raped before age 25 and almost half were first raped as a minor (i.e., before age 18).”(CDC, 2024) With this staggering statistics and rates of sexual violence, you would think the United States would have an effective social and justice system to support survivors and take preventive measures. But even in the 21st century, victims are unjustly undermined and systematically oppressed, these statistics are just the reported incidents. Systematic oppression towards victims is not just a women issue but an all gender issue, the CDC reports that “1 in 3 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact in their lifetime” (CDC, 2024). In a society that normalizes sexual violence to the extent the United States, we can’t expect these statistics to decrease on their own.

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ethompson250 — 2024-05-02 19:58:14 UTC

About the author Rose Khan Rose Khan has a Masters degree in Political Science specialising in human rights and humanitarian action from Sciences Po Paris. Rose has worked on UN policy develo, et al. “Media (Mis)Representation of Conflicted-Related Sexual Violence.” Media@LSE, 23 Feb. 2022, blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2022/02/23/media-misrepresentation-of-conflicted-related-sexual-violence/.

Alerden, Megan, and Sarah Ullman. “Gender Difference or Indifference? Detective Decision Making in Sexual Assault Cases.” Sage Journals, Sage Journals, 1 Aug. 2011, www.researchgate.net/publication/328039672_httpjournalssagepubcomdoiabs1011770887302X07303626.

Author links open overlay panelMichelle Davies, et al. “Male Sexual Assault Victims: A Selective Review of the Literature and Implications for Support Services.” Aggression and Violent Behavior, Pergamon, 9 Apr. 2002, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178900000434.

Bergman, Matthew. “Social Media and Sexual Assualt.” Social Media Victims Law Center, Social Media Victims, 4 Dec. 2023, socialmediavictims.org/sexual-violence/sexual-assault/.

Commentary, Guest. “California Must Finally End the Backlog of Unprocessed Rape Kits. Here’s How.” CalMatters, 4 Sept. 2019, calmatters.org/commentary/2019/09/rape-kit-testing/.

“Fast Facts: Preventing Sexual Violence |violence Prevention|injury Center|CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 22 June 2022, www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/fastfact.html.

Hodge, Samanatha, and David Canter. “Victims and Perpetrators of Male Sexual Assault.” Sage Journals, Sage Journals, Apr. 1998, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/088626098013002004.

Jones, Emily. “Untested and Neglected .” Scholarly Common, Northwestern, 2021, scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1459&context=nulr.

Lapidus, Lenora M. “A Full Investigation Is Needed into the Sexual Assault Allegations against Brett Kavanaugh: ACLU.” American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU.org, 27 Feb. 2023, www.aclu.org/news/womens-rights/full-investigation-needed-sexual-assault-allegations.

Lee, Hannah. “Normalizing Sexual Violence through Media Fuels Rape Culture.” Normalizing Sexual Violence through Media Fuels Rape Culture – Saratoga Falcon, Saratiga Falcon, 22 Nov. 2021, saratogafalcon.org/content/normalizing-sexual-violence-through-media-fuels-rape-culture/.

Park, Sandra. “How America Systematically Fails Survivors of Sexual Violence: ACLU.” American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU.org, 27 Feb. 2023, www.aclu.org/news/womens-rights/how-america-systematically-fails-survivors-sexual-violence.

“Rape Prevention and Education Program |violence Prevention|injury Center|CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 Mar. 2023, www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/rpe/index.html.

“Recy Taylor, Rosa Parks, and the Struggle for Racial Justice.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, 10 Aug. 2020, nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/recy-taylor-rosa-parks-and-struggle-racial-justice.

“Sexualized Violence Statistics .” Supporting Survivors, Cal Poly Humboldt , supportingsurvivors.humboldt.edu/statistics. Accessed 2 May 2024.

ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 01:35:21 UTC

The desperation to change how we act towards sexual violence has always been present in the population, the failure to support victims has been a poision in ever function of our society and systematically destroys our justice system faith. There have been two cases in popular culture that have highlighted the need for change, Annita Hill and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford; Both women found themselves in the spotlight after being outed for their reports of sexual harrasment and assault from men who were up for nomination to the Supreme Court. Anitta Hill was forcefully put into the public eye in 1991 after allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace from Clarence Thomas, her coworker at the time, the claims came to light when Clarence was under review for nomination for the Supreme Court. Anitta Hill did not come out publicly but was instead dragged into the spotlight by the media when they released her name, this caused her to receive death threats and torn to shreds by an all white male jury who were invesigating the claims. In the end, Clarence Thomas was voted on to the supreme court and is still serving to this day, this incident is used in popular culture to show why the victim's privacy and rights is so essential in any investigations. But, the same situation was just repeated with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh. Dr. Ford came forward with allegations of sexual assault from Kavanaugh, the incident took place at their high school party, Ford came forward because of the nomination of Kavanaugh to the supreme court. Dr. Ford up-ended her life to tell her story and with that she was sent death threats and vicious remarks from the president of the US. Kavanaugh was still voted on to the supreme court after the evidence hearing with Ford. These victims had nothing to gain from coming forward and yet they were ridiculed to an extreme that no victim should ever face. The attitude around victims coming forward has made improvements but when cases like these are shown in the public light, we are reminded that our society will forever be against victims if we do not change at a fundamental level.

This behavior of berating and blaming victims is seen throughout history, another example of victim blaming or just not even believing victims is famously Recy Taylor. In an article titled ‘Recy Taylor, Rosa Parks and the Struggle for Racial Justice’ published by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the story of Recy Taylor is unfolded. Recy Taylor was 24 years old and a mother when the crime occured, on September 3rd, 1944 in Abbeville, Alabama. Recy was walking home from church when she was abducted and raped by 6 white men; these men never saw an indicment for the crimes. It took until 2011, nearly 60 years after the case in which the state of Alabama issued a formal apology to Recy Taylor, who later passed on December 21, 2017. Recy Taylor was fundamental in highlighting systematic oppression of women of color with her case. The intersectionality of being a women and a person of color has the justice system stacked against you; With a deep history of sexism and racist biogtry, women of color victims are ignored and berated to keep quiet against their perpatrators, harrassed at police stations to drop charges by officers and rape kits unprocessed in storage. The United States has made the crimincal justice so anti-victim that at every stage of processing, victims are mistreated and ignored.

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ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 03:01:17 UTC

In the United States, we place a lot of burden and decision making on the detective and police that work criminal cases. They play a major role in deciding if a case is worth pursuing and investigating or not. Within this system, police and detective personnel lean heavily male dominated, there have been bills passed to create incentive to an equal work force and gender balance in these departments. But is this the most helpful thing to change the environment around victim centered support? A research article titled ‘Gender difference or Indifference? Detective Decision Making In Sexual Assaullt Cases’ written by Megan Alderden and Sarah Ullman, examine whether this hiring of women to support victim sexual assault cases is beneficiary or not. Specifically, the research wants to examine whether gender differences exist in detectives’ arrest decisions in sexual assault cases. Through societal attitudes it is expected that women detectives are more likely to be make arrests and be sympathetic in sexual assault cases, but the findings on this case show, “In fact, these findings support other studies showing that creation of police units investigating sexual assaults comprised of mostly women do not necessarily result in better processing outcomes (LaFree, 1989) and that some women can be more harsh to sexual assault victims than men (Weir & Wrightsman, 1990).” (Alderden, Ullman 2011) This study continues its findings stating that women are significantly less likely than male detectives to arrest suspects in sexual assault cases. Police stations in effort to be more victim orientated have begun hiring an influx of women detectives which given the research we now know may actually be unproductive and harmful to the final cause of supporting victims. This hiring pattern was formulated from the gender stereotyping that women are more empathetic and understanding than men are in this type of setting. Relying off of these stereotypes in the hiring process without actual training, does not equal a victim centered program.

ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 03:12:01 UTC

In a system that proudly boasts victim centered support, there are great disparities in every single foundational part of it. There are hundreds of thousands of rape kits unproccessed, in dusty warehouses creating a back log that will never be able to be caught up in processing. There are our own detectives with biases going against victims when trying to report and process. In the aftermath of sexual violence, victims are harassed, underheard and ignored in our general population. Changes have to be made to support every victim of sexuality, gender and origin.

ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 03:40:04 UTC

The US Justice department has reported that 91% of rape victims are female but the other 9% of victims are male. But men are so grossly underepresented when discussing victims rights, this is because men being victims of sexual assault go against the gender stereotyping that is a societal value. These stereotypes dictate that a man must be dominant, aggressive and assertive; being a victim means you can not be any of these through this lens. In a research article titled ‘Victims and Perpetrators of Male Sexual Assault’ written by Samantha Hodge and David Canter, the researchers found that the support and research for male victims are 20 years behind than female victims. The article later goes on to describe how this can be influenced by the traditional views of masculinity which were mentioned before and the rape myths towards men that “men cannot be raped”. Some experimental evidence from the article suggests that these myths are more strong when the perpetrator is female. One survey found from the article states, “7.2% of the 1480 men reported SA by female acquaintances” (Hodge and David, 1998). But ever survey taken on the issue is reported an underestimate because men are scared and discouraged from reporting any form of sexual violence.

Another reason for the lack of victim support towards men is the lack of resources that go into rape crisis centers that are focused of male victims. Rape is not just a women’s issue and with the uprising of the Me Too movement, we were able to see more male victim’s of many sexualities step into the light and have a platform to speak out about their own experiences and listening to male victims.

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ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 04:16:36 UTC

One of the biggest systematic failures in the crinimal justice system is the back log of rape kits. A rape kit is forensic evidence, i.e. DNA, clothing, and pictures of injuries; this evidence is stored in a smaller box. A rape kit is given at a hospital after a sexual assault is reported, they can only be taken by a registered Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. In a research article about the back log of rape kits titled, ‘ Untested and Neglected: Clarifying the Comparator Requirement in Equal Protection Claims Based on Untested Rape Kits’ by Emily Jones, the article states that every 73 seconds someone is sexually assaulted in the United States and less than 0.5% of these rapes will make it through the criminal justice system and into conviction. These shocking statistics are only made worse by the backlog of 400,000 kits in warehouses. The claim that these kits can not be tested because of underfunding and space in labs is incorrect. The federal government allocates specific funds for rape kit testing and has desginated labrotories for the testing of these kits. The backlog of these kits can only be blamed on the inherent bias and prosecution towards victims. The article's research has found that, “One survey of nearly 900 police officers more than half of the officers stated that 11% to 50% of SA complaints lie about being assaulted.” When in reality false rape allegations only make up a 2 to 6% of rape allegations. These negative biases are what casue a backlog of rape kits because detectives fail to prosecute and further allow DNA testing to be done in cases.

The backlog of rape kits is not only harmful for the actual cases but for the future cases. Victims will feel discouraged from coming forward because of the mistreatment of evidence and attitudes towards victims in the process of collecting said evidence. If nothing is happening in the cases now, why would future victims feel confident in their justice system to come forward for help.

ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 04:18:26 UTC

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ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 04:20:34 UTC

ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 04:45:11 UTC

The media plays a huge role in popular culture and the zygyst, media influences our daily lives, experiences and perceptions. Media also plays an important role in dictating rape culture fueled by gender stereotyping which seeps into our criminal justice system. Harmful gender stereotypes like women being submissive, passive and hysterical created a culture of victim blaming. Victim blmaing can be seen as asking what a women was wearing when raped, how much she was drinnking and in overall terms blaming the victim for her own rape. We also see rape culture being portrayed as casual and normal in relationships, with shows like Game and Thrones and in general porn culture normalizing rough unconsenual sex. Another example of rape culture in popular culture is the song “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke which is literally about mixed signals and going after a women either way. A CDC study has found that common media showing of rape tend to increase victim blaming and how the public perceive female victims. Another issue in the media surrounding is just the misrepresentation of rape, this can be seen as only showing clear victims as females, no portrayal of male victims in the media is shown or as clear cut as it is for women. Another misrepresentation is that women will always be perpetual victims and that they should act a certain way when violated. This can be harmful towards investigations and lead to bias in detectives when questioning victims.

Social media has linked the world together, creating a supportive space for victims but also creating a wider reach of sexual harassment. A survey reported in the article ‘Social Media and Sexual Assault’ written by Matthew Bergman states that “33% of women under 35 say they have experienced sexual assault online and 11% of men under 35 have a repeated the same experience” Online harassment and assault has normalized this type of behavior for the general public and numbed us to how harmful this can be.

ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 05:33:03 UTC

There are a multitude of ways to prevent sexual violence, but the main start is to spread anti-rape education and fund education that provides tools and resources around these situations. The CDC has specific programing called the Rape Prevention and Education Program (RPE), the goals of this program are preventing first-time occurence of sexual violence and enhancing protective factors linked to victimization, they also improve future program plan’s and help spread resources through crisis centers. There is not one solution to helping stop sexual violence, but the main ones to reduce it are education and supporting victims after said incidents happen.

ethompson250 — 2024-05-06 05:34:31 UTC